Topic Was any of it real?

One of the first things I remember when I first woke up in this city was it was raining, I had a small data cube, a battered and torn journal with dried blood on it, and a handgun on me.

Reading though the journal quickly brought back some memories:
[quote][b]Personal Journal of Dr. K[/b]

20 May
Subject #07252414, unlike the others who just cowers in fear, just stares at you with blank eyes. One of my four dozen hand picked subjects from Obata. None of which will be any use to me if I don’t get on with my work. Because of her blank and passive stare, and her complete lack of response to any sort of stimulus, she was one of those selected to injected with compound C-24. At age 10 she’s a bit older than the rest of my subjects but then Obata’s the one who picks them. All these nekos they bring in are so pathetic I find myself hating them. Most of them struggle and cry, which means my test subjects always arrive to me a bit damaged. I’ve logged many complaints to Commander Obata already; he has yet to respond to any of them.

6 June
Of the original four dozen subjects over 75% are now deceased. Strangely, no clear patterns have emerged as of yet to effects of the compounds tested. Compound C-24 however has given us the most interesting results so far. I'm hoping the survivors will provide more answers or my time here will have gone to waste. The cadavers, baring no more use to us, were promptly incinerated.

18 June
Only five left now, two males and three females. Subject #07252414 is an interesting case though. Physically, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her. No cellular anomalies, nothing. Compound C-24, however, seems to have brought on some kind of psychotic breakdown. Her personality has seemingly been divided. In one, she's quite insane. In the other she’s the same as she was before. In either though, her stare has this way of looking through you. Even Toya won’t go near her. He claims that “the thing” in cell five is pure evil. I see him cross himself whenever he passes her door. Still, there's something about her... I'm glad Obata let #07252414 have a go at the gardening project. She is quite proficient. Obata was reluctant to allow an inmate access to the tool and chemical supply at first but now the fat toad is delighted. The crop has almost doubled. She also grows roses. Beautiful roses.

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17 December
I was in the mess. It was about half past ten when we heard the first explosion. The ones at the front ran straight into the gas. It was horrible. A few of us made it out through the rear door. You could hear men screaming everywhere. I hate the sound of men screaming. In the center of the camp, everything was on fire. Everyone was running in all directions. We had hardly enough time to get our bearings when the incineration ovens exploded. It was subject #07252414 from cell five. I couldn't have known. The chemical supplies, grease solvents, ammonia, fertilizer. She'd been making things with them. Mustard gas... and napalm. As far as I know, only 16 of us made it out of the camp alive. Those that managed to escape both the gas and the fires, were hacked limb from limb. It didn’t matter if you were an inmate or camp staff; if she found you she killed you. I made it up the hill overlooking the camp when I saw her in the yard. She had gotten her hands on the sword hanging in Commander Obata’s office. It was a good guess he was dead. In that final moment where I stared at her for the last time, all her movements seemed so fluid, one leading into the other, as if she was weaving a dance of death amid all that destruction... The rest of us decided it was best that we keep silent on everything. Even with the destruction of Camp Arpaggi, I can make a good guess that our superiors would continue on with the genetic experiments. Thus it was decided that it was best we all disappeared off the radar.

27 December
Just gotten news from one of my contacts, because most people were burnt to ashes in the destruction those of us that survived have basically been labelled as deceased, according to my contact my name was one of those listed as dead, which should make our new job of hiding a lot easier.

26 January
Over the past few weeks subject #07252414, who, according to my contact, has named herself Youko Giha, is now living a seemingly normal life. These past few weeks have also brought many rumours and whispers as well that she is somehow killing us off, one by one. Of the 16 of us who escaped, 5 have already turned up dead. I fear I may be next.[/quote]
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[b]A few year later:[/b]

Youko's eyes blinked open and she found herself staring up at the night sky. Releasing what had happened she quickly looked down at herself, she had been in the aftereffect of a chemical explosion that had splashed some corrosive agent on her. She stared in shock at herself, under the skin that was eaten away was... machinery...

Quickly getting up she made her way to her storage locker and dug out the data cube she had on herself the first time she woke up in Lost Angels. She never did figure out what was on it.

Her hand got splashed as well and as soon as the open machinery touched the data cube a video file started playing before her eyes, she sat back stunned as in the video a hand pulled away from the camera to reveal... herself? Only she looked old... way old.

"If your seeing this then you've somehow discovered what you are. In a way I'm your mother, or creator. The journal, Camp Arpaggi... all that was real, at least it was for me. The "good" doctor the journal belonged to was one of the last people to have survived the destruction of the camp, and this video is programed to play either after you've finally killed all the survivors of that cursed place or when you discover that your not who you thought you were. The data block I placed on you was the key to this video's activation. I know you have many questions, but I don't have much time, my body is failing. The C-24 compound they used as part of their genetic experimentations is finally taking it's toll, I estimate another week before total genetic cascade failure occurs and I am dead. Thus I have built you to continue my work..."

She sat there, tears slowly running down her cheeks as the video continued, detailing how the original Youko Giha, Subject #07252414 of Camp Arpaggi, found a half-finished clone of herself in one of the sub-levels of the camp as she explored the aftermath of the fire. She had almost destroyed it then and there before realizing she could make use of it, grow new organs, or anything she may need to heal herself. So she took it and any undamaged equipment with her.

It was a month before she realized that her organs were slowly failing and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The C-24 they used had rewritten small parts of her DNA, the clone, made before the C-24 usage was too different at the base DNA coding to be of much use. And it seemed any newly cloned organs from her altered DNA only survived for short time before failing again.

The original built her from the half finished clone with a few cybernetic enhancements to finish what she started should she be unable to: get revenge on the people who did this to her. She used the equipment to make a copy of her memories and then downloaded selective memories into her cyber-clone before making the video. The person in the video reached a hand out to the camera and the video ended.

She sat there for a moment, the tears coming faster now as she hugged herself.